When Social Media Became a Massive Safe Zone

 Democracy dies in the darkness. Fascism thrives in censorship.

Throughout the weekend, I've watched various little games played out via Facebook and Twitter....both cycling through some censorship gimmick.

The chief problem is that someone will stand up and say they are 'judge-and-jury', and this topic is now censored.  A day later.....they add another topic.  After a month, you seem to view the landscape and there's forty-odd things that you can't discuss or converse on.

Last year, I was reading a piece by George R. R. Martin (The Game of Thrones writer).  He wrote a fine piece on censorship...."When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”

That quote kinda stuck with me.  In this darkness of censorship....you are admitting a heck of a lot of fear.  Fear of the truth.....fear of the unknown....fear of reality....fear of the future...and even fear of consequences.  

The one tiny chip on the shoulder of censorship.....you don't want anyone to say something to incite anything (not a discussion, not a conversation, and certainly not a debate). 

How we survive as a incite-fearful society?  You might as well shut down theaters...close down libraries, and just hope TV can produce plain vanilla shows like Gilligan's Island or Grizzly Adams.  

At this point, I would suggest that both Facebook and Twitter are probably done as major platforms by the end of 2021.  If they chase away half of their customers....their income level falls, and stock prices dwindle.  

Yeah.....social media finally 'woke-up' enough....that's become one massive safe zone.  

Why Should I Pay the 'California-Tax'?

 First, to the key core-element of this discussion....the total debt of California as of the end of 2020....is around 770 billion dollars (more or less).

If you were discussing the way they got to this scale of a problem....I'd have to make the 300-line essay. It took a lot of hard work, significant incompetence, and poor attention to spending habits.  

So as we enter 2021 and the arriving Biden-Harris team, there's likely to be a full-scale press for 'relief', to be a 50-50 deal by the House and Senate.  My belief is that they will 'gift' California a minimum of 50 billion dollars, and loan them a zero-interest package of 100 billion dollars (spread out over 20 years).  

Does any of this 'rescue-package' really do much?  I would suggest that it gives a year of marginal help, and the same issues arrive by the summer of 2022.  You see....the exodus of people of people, the exit-strategy of retirees, and various companies moving beyond the border....leave the state with a dwindling amount of taxation dollars.  It simply isn't there.

But here comes the real question....if non-Californians are paying into the federal pot of money, and all this 'free-money' is funneled out to a failing state....why should I pay the 'California-tax'?  

At some point, tens of millions are going to turn to their Representatives and Senators, and ask some stupid questions.  All of this will lead back to financial habits of a failed state, and wondering how 49 other states got into a gimmick like this.  

The people who left California?  Well....they kinda thought that as they drove past the border sign....they were finished with California-taxation.  In this case....via their federal taxes....they still in some crazy way get attached to California.  

Just something to think about.  

A Dead Horse Chat

 In the early 1990s, the Air Force decided that they'd 'retrain' me a third time (you'd think two were enough in a 22-year period).  I was to become an IT-jack-of-all-trades (enough to be dangerous....enough to make a system work....enough to recognize failures or issues).  Over the next five years, I came to encounter a number of people who knew marginally more than me and were just 'jacks' as well.  

One day, in the midst of a system failure....a contractor (more than just a 'jack') looked over a particular problem and ended with the quote: 'It's a dead horse....we could do a hundred things here, but they all came to a definite end-point...it was a dead horse'.  

It was one of those moments that you kinda remember from 22 years.  Once you reach a stage with something....it doesn't matter what you do from this point on....it's a dead horse, and you won't get much of anything out of it.  

This past couple of days (since the 6th), I've sat and pondered over a number of things....politically speaking....news speaking....cultural speaking....and future speaking.

I would suggest we've approached some sunset, and there lays a dead horse issue in the landscape.

You bring up the Boy Scouts, their politicization over the past decade....it's a dead horse now.

You bring up transgender issues in schools over the past decade....total politicization of the topic.....it's a dead horse now.

You bring up MAGA hats....total politicization of the topic...it's a dead horse now.

You bring up NFL football or NBA action....total politicization of the topics....it's a dead horse now.

You bring up local TV news.....total politicization of topics....it's a dead horse now.

It's hard to find any normal situation still existing....that hasn't been politicized, and it's laying there like a dead horse.

Covid-19, mask-wearing, ban-rules, bars and restaurants shut down....all politicized and lays there as a dead horse.

The thing about this whole 'dead horse' discussion....it doesn't matter what you do from this point on, you can't resolve the dead horse problem and all matters after that point are muted and useless to discuss.

Generally, societies all try to motivate themselves and try to stay on the positive-thinking side.  But once you stand back a bit, and you just see dead horse after dead horse, there's not much motivation left.  It's going to be curious how you proceed now....if there's zero confidence.  Nobody rides dead horses much.